[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-goblin-king-my-innate-skill-is-op":3,"chapter-goblin-king-my-innate-skill-is-op-goblin-king-my-innate-skill-is-op-chapter-156":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Goblin King: My Innate Skill Is OP",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1335849,1780,"Chapter 156: Surrender","goblin-king-my-innate-skill-is-op-chapter-156",156,"\u003Cp>It was desperation — a need to prove herself against me, to show that she could stand on the same ground I did.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Landing even a single hit would have been her proof that she wasn’t the weakling she sometimes believed herself to be, that she was more than just another follower in my shadow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was her way of saying she could become a true asset to me, to the clan — a demand to be acknowledged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But a question lingered:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why was she so desperate to prove it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She lifted her head then, her eyes meeting mine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was no hostility in them, only the sharp glint of determination, the same one I’d seen again and again whenever she set her mind to something.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I didn’t think of her as weak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Never once had I considered her a liability.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If anything, every time I watched her fight, every time I saw her grit her teeth and push herself further, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe at how relentless she became when she decided something mattered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whether it was fighting for the clan, carrying out instructions without hesitation, or even trying to hunt me down just now, Zarah always gave everything with the same unflinching seriousness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that... that I admired, even if it terrified me sometimes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But instead of saying it out loud, I kept it locked inside, telling it only to myself like some coward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Chief?\" she called softly, tilting her head, as if she could sense the words on the tip of my tongue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But nothing came out. My mouth stayed shut, even though I knew exactly what she was searching for.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She wanted to hear it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That she wasn’t weak. That she wasn’t a burden. That she had worth beyond her bow and her skills.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More than that... she wanted to be shown she was desirable, that someone saw her not just as a fighter or a goblin under orders, but as Zarah herself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And truthfully? I wanted to tell her I desired her, as her me,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So why was I hesitating?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why couldn’t I just say it — the truth sitting in my chest like a weight?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Chief!\" she called again, her voice sharper this time, but I barely registered it. I was too lost in the spiral of my own thoughts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was I afraid? Of what, exactly?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I’d told myself before that it was awkward. That she was a goblin, and I was still too bound to my humanity to cross that line. I’d told myself I had more important priorities, that desire had no place here, not when survival and leadership demanded all of me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But deep down, I knew better.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those were excuses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every last one of them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because the truth was simpler, rawer — I was scared of what it meant to accept her, to admit that I wanted her, not just as a warrior at my side, but as Zarah.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The real reason was simpler than all the excuses I had piled up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was afraid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Afraid that I was undesirable. Afraid that whatever she felt for me was misplaced, maybe even imagined — a false desire born out of circumstance rather than truth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But how could I know that for sure if I never let myself believe in it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why did I always assume the worst — that I was destined to be hurt, that betrayal was waiting just around the corner? Why did I treat every hand reaching for me as if it carried a blade?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps it was because every lesson I’d learned before this life had been carved with pain — that nothing offered freely came without a hidden cost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was exhausting. Truly exhausting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And for a fleeting moment, I wanted to set that burden down. I wanted to stop living under the weight of that fear and taste what it felt like to be free of it, even if only with one person.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if only with her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The idea of it felt intoxicating, like tasting rain after years in the desert — fragile, fleeting, but no less real.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was it so selfish of me to desire that — a single space where I didn’t have to be guarded, where I didn’t have to doubt?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Do I not have the right to desire that?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The question barely formed in my mind before I felt it — warmth against my skin, gentle and grounding. A hand, her hand, resting against my face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My head lifted almost on its own, and there she was. Zarah stood so close I could see every detail of her transformed features, and I realized I hadn’t even noticed her approach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her scent — earth, sweat, and something faintly sweet like crushed leaves — hit me before the full reality of her closeness did, grounding me even as it unraveled my composure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had closed the distance silently, as though pulled by the very thoughts I was too afraid to voice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her eyes — still that sharp, beady shape of a goblin’s — stared straight into mine with such intensity that heat surged through my entire body, leaving me rooted to the spot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I felt my pulse hammer against my ribs, a frantic beat that seemed to echo hers, as though our bodies were already in conversation even if our mouths stayed shut.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was no hesitation in her gaze, no doubt, only a raw conviction that burned hotter than any flame.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Chief...\" she whispered, her voice carrying a tone I had never heard from her before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Softer, deeper, laced with something undeniably sensual.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And in that moment, something inside me snapped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Screw priorities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I wanted to indulge in the moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No — more than that. I wasgoingto.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To push it aside, to pretend it didn’t matter, would be dishonest. Not just to myself, but to her as well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because in her eyes I saw no hesitation, no judgment, only the quiet courage of someone who had already decided I was worth the risk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had laid her feelings bare in her own way, and if I turned from it now, I’d only be denying the truth we were both standing in.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So I...\u003C\u002Fp>",1037,"2026-06-05T20:04:08.077Z",1,"novelbin.me","a82bc1ecc995022c3317edee853a48b2979bf6b2bbce53fcbc6d1c54cd594d7b","goblin-king-my-innate-skill-is-op-chapter-157","goblin-king-my-innate-skill-is-op-chapter-155",375,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fgoblin-king-my-innate-skill-is-op-cover.jpg"]